French Onion Soup.....on the grill?

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

This was made for us a few weeks ago in a kitchen, and we're hooked. Tried it Sunday night over our local Kiawe charcoal to make sure and it was even better. Such a simple thing but the end result will surprise you. Here's what you'll need:

- One medium to large, heavy and firm yellow onion per person. Heavy because the more water content the better. And I was told that the sweeter varieties came out too sweet... but it's up to you. The yellow was GREAT.
- One Bouillon cube. Or a half cube maybe for a smaller onion-or if you don't want it too salty.
- A pat of butter, or drizzle of olive oil.
- Aluminum foil.
- A little grated cheese. I used cave-aged gruyere (naturally! ) but the French one called Comte. Niiiiice and creamy and super stringy.

Peel the onion and open an X-shaped slit from the top. Stuff the bouillon cube and butter inside the slit, and wrap tightly with double layer aluminum foil because if it leaks you are SCREWED my friend. If using olive oil just drizzle some in the opening. And VERY IMPORTANT: it needs to roast standing up; and you'll want to check it later by opening the top so wrap accordingly.

Roast either on the grill (indirect heat if you can) for 45 mins to an hour or more depending on temperature (or you could tightly cover in ramekins for the oven or toaster-oven at 300-350). No need to open it right away to check. Takes time so just leave it be. It'll become extremely tender and translucent and sort of "collapse" when ready. Open them carefully and transfer to bowls--because what you'll have is a cup or more of broth from the oinion's juices and bouillon. It'll be one seriously hot and steamy mutha, so grate cheese over the top (it'll get stringy right away) and tuck in. No crouton, so call it "low carb" I guess. You won't miss it.

You could add anything you want and tweak this, but we didn't even crack pepper. DAMN it was good. I'll probably pre-heat a little early and do this every grill-night--regardless of what's on as dinner.

Enjoy!

[BleedingPurple]

That sounds amazing! I love me some french onion soup and this sounds like a great variation.

[lunchbox]

that sounds excellent blotto, thanks! i will definitely try this some time soon.

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

Well, I hope a few of you do indeed try it. Seriously it's REALLY good for such a simple prep. I'll have the oven on tonight so will try the ramekin way. But on Sundays it's all grill and outdoors, so luckily it adapts perfectly for any contraption--charcoal or gas. All you need is a little time.

[Hipcheck]

Sounds awesome! Ill try it.

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

*UPDATE* Tried doing some placed directly in ramekins and covered tightly. This small one was pretty good, but the bigguns weren't soupy enough. We concluded that the hot air inside the ramekin was roasting the onion, while the sizzling flat surface on the bottom allowed the leeched juices to boil and reduce.

It'd better be wrapped in the foil so the onion has no choice but to steam through itself, and the lack of a boil will preserve the max amount of juice. So that bodes even better for grill night: foil wrap and throw it on standing up. But again, be mindful of leaks. [or if oven method, you could foil wrap--and then place in ramekins to roast.] Here's pics to give some idea :


Don't cut too far through. Just open enough to shove in the bouillon cube. With cracked pepper, olive oil, and we also put a little butter on top.


Finished, and pre-cheese. It should have even more liquid if done properly. But the taste was fantastic.

[Hipcheck]

Originally Posted by MikeHoncho

Me too! I never thought of cooking onions on the grill before!

I cook sweet maui onions all the time-cut them into large wheels and put them right on the grill. Brush with some olive oil(or any marinade for that matter) and flip once. You can get great looking grill marks and they really have a nice flavor.

[Annapurna]

That sounds great! I'm going to have to try it soon.